A significant percentage of lobsters from the summer and fall catch each year are "pounded" or stocked in lobster pounds. As many as 100,000 lobsters may be live stored in a single pound for many months. The lobsters are fed until they become more or less dormant in the cold weather. Then during the late winter months when the market is favorable, the pound owner begins retrieving the lobsters for sale and shipment. A problem often encountered is that the pound owner may discover a mortality as great as 20% of the lobsters placed in the pound.
The present inventors have discovered from sustained observation in the marine environment of lobster pounds that stress and injury to which the lobsters are subjected in handling during transport to the lobster pound are major causes of such losses. According to conventional methods for stocking lobster pounds the lobsterman or fisherman with lobsters in a live holding tank onboard the boat arrives at the dock for unloading. Fresh seawater is circulated through such live tanks to maintain the health of the day's catch while held on the lobster boat or fishing boat.
The trouble begins when the lobsters leave the boat. The lobsters are picked out one at a time and placed together in a wire basket for weighing. The lobsters are then packed dry in wooden crates for shipment to the pound. Alternatively the lobsters may be held temporarily in a tank to be bailed out later and packed into the wooden crates for shipment. Each time the lobsters are handled and packed together out of water there is physical damage from puncture wounds. The horny projections on the lobsters' claw joints and the rostrum which projects like the horn of a unicorn, are needle sharp. When a lobster is punctured it bleeds a clear liquid blood which can cause immediate weakening and delayed death several days or as much as several weeks later.
Furthermore, lobsters derive their necessary oxygen from the water through gills. It is only the moisture on the gills which keeps the lobsters alive during transport in the conventional wooden crates. The longer the lobster is out of water the greater is the anoxic stress and the more it is weakened and susceptible to disease. When the lobsters arrive at the pound they are indiscriminately dumped in the water or unpacked and thrown in one at a time.
In the weakened condition a significant percentage of the lobsters are susceptible to Gaffkemia bacteria and develop "red tail disease". It is also the weakened lobsters that are cannibalized by their healthy neighbors further spreading the disease. Thus, the physical damage and oxygen deprivation during handling and transport are the major causes of shrinkage among the pounded lobsters.
It is particularly important that lobster destined for long term pounding and storage be in the best possible condition and free of the stresses of oxygen deprivation and physical injury. Lobsters headed for the consumer within a few days of shipment may be shipped by the conventional methods, as the longer term effects of such stresses are of no import. It is now apparent, however, that the conventional methods of holding and transporting lobsters are entirely inappropriate for lobsters to be pounded and live stored over long periods of time.
Another disadvantage of the conventional method for handling and transporting lobsters is the number of manual handling steps and the amount of time required. This time consuming method causes back up delays at the unloading dock when the boats arrive at once, and increased costs of handling.